A Palm Springs Babymoon

August 17, 2016

Babymoon—something you might roll your eyes to, but if you’ve ever had a baby, you know that the thought of taking a vacation when you’re pregnant and exhausted is pretty much the best thing ever…other than actually going on a vacation.

I have wanted a babymoon with every baby, but with work, life, and other babies in the picture…it just didn’t happen. Before I got pregnant with this one, I told Aaron I really really wanted to go on one, that it was more of a need than a want. 😆 Since my last vacation with just Aaron (to Maui)…in 2012, I have literally been pregnant, nursing, pregnant, nursing, and pregnant back-to-back. We have had amazing Disneyland trips with our girls, and we went on a little trip to Carmel for our anniversary a month before I had Sadie, but I just wanted a break (/new adventure) away with him before we brought another little lady into the world. I don’t think it’s the most unreasonable want…to have some quality time with your husband, right!? 😉

So picture hot-mess Christie, after a semi-disastrous day of mom-failing, 108* temps (for maybe 5 days straight?) and even having an afternoon of stepping on Hadley’s living (and somehow still alive) betta fish—which she had accidentally pushed her nightstand and he splashed out. Now imagine after a day like this, at 11:30pm, Aaron saying, “Would you like to pack your bags tonight, or in the morning!?” Immediately, I started crying tears of joy…but when I asked “where!?” and he replied “Palm Springs!”…I immediately googled the weather and saw 116*, 115*, 109*…I then began crying tears of sadness and anger. Just keeping it real here, I was terrified of the heat. “Are you trying to kill me!?” “You are trying to kill me!” “Why why why!?” “I’ve always wanted to go there, but NOT the peak of summer…” “Wahhhh! (like a baby)” are things that all came out of my nearly 37-week pregnant, highly-emotional self.

And bless him, his continuous response was, “I’m so sorry, just trust me, it will be amazing.”

And amazing it was.

We got to fly on an airplane…alone…together… for the first time in four years. We couldn’t believe how ridiculously easy it is to travel when you don’t have strollers, car seats, bags of blankies/pillows/kid’s stuff, and two little ones with you! Holding hands, eating snacks, and reading in the airplane—what a luxury! Even if the trip had ended there, I might’ve been set!

Happy just to be in the airport together! (Love the photobomber)

Jet Blue snacks and a book!

We flew from Sacramento to Long Beach, I oogled at how retro-cute that airport was, and then we set off into the sunset towards our final destination. I worried about not having enough water at the hotel (and having to pay $4 a bottle) so we stopped at the first store we hit in Palm Desert…a very-packed Food 4 Less…at about 10:45pm…needless to say that was an interesting experience, but hey, we got a ton of Dasani water bottles we didn’t quite end up needing but still drank (our hotel passed out water bottles like they were napkins!) 😆

Long Beach airport palm trees 🙂

As we started driving up to our resort, it was as if we were driving up a private mountain, lit by illuminated palm trees all throughout the way. “What is this place?” is probably what kept coming out of my mouth, until we got to the top where we were greeted by very nice people, holding water bottles for us (ha!) Even just stepping in the lobby, it smelt like Heaven (we later found out they put Bvlgari “White Tea” scent in their air vents) and they upgraded our room to “one of the best views at the resort” (it was the off season, hence the 115* weather.) We definitely scoped out our room, giggled like little kids, and quickly fell asleep in the fluffy, cloud-like, white bed.

If you want to know THE best part about this trip, the biggest treat of all…it was honest to goodness getting to wake up how our bodies wanted to…not being woken up by an alarm clock or a little voice (as cute as can be) asking for breakfast. We got to sleep in at a whopping 8:30am! We opened the blackout curtains, and looked out at the oasis-like scenery (remember, we didn’t get to see any of it the day prior, as we arrived in the dark.) It was such a beautiful surprise seeing a type of landscape so unfamiliar to us both. Our room came with a Nespresso machine, which made absolutely delicious latte-like coffee drinks—we thought we’d do Starbucks trips every morning, but we really just loved the coffee we could make in our room.

Morning coffee

We ate breakfast at one of the two restaurants on the resort, The State Fare, and each had eggs benedict (my favorite breakfast in the world.) We loved our food so much, we had breakfast there every morning. We walked the rest of the resort (by the way, this was at the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage) and got to scope out things we’d want to see, and which pool we would prefer to be at (adult pool all the way!)

The best eggs benedict I’ve ever had!

We laid by the pool for a little bit, then quickly showered and changed to go to the day spa for a couples massage. I get teased about it a lot, but I absolutely love wearing robes, and so imagine mega-pregnant Christie, in all my robed glory, indulging in healthy little snacks just as happy as can be. We got our massages, I teased spa-day Aaron a few times (because I am super mature in situations like this,) and then we went our separate male-female sides of the spa ways for a little bit. I will say, prenatal massages aren’t even comparable to real massages—I’m basically a ticking time bomb about to go into labor, so they were extra careful (and I am a girl that loves hot stone, deep-tissue massages) but it was still an amazing treat! When we finally met back up, I found out Aaron had dipped in the 40* ice tub, had a “hot mud face shave,” then took a eucalyptus infused shower—the guy doesn’t hold back! All I did was drink some earl grey tea and read in my robe in a nice, quiet area! When we got back to our room, we realized we had just missed the “candy happy hour”—where they have an array of different candies for guests to make a goodie bag out of. Fear not, the amazing staff brought us a ton of candy to our door, and again we giggled like little kids and had some candy.

That night, we drove around Palm Desert and hit up a pizza place recommended by a friend called Matchbox. It was yummy, but even walking in the heat from the car to the restaurant was pretty intense. It was fun driving around the area, as it is far more spread out than we imagined…it doesn’t quite have a central “strip” type of area. We decided that for this trip, especially considering the extreme temps, we would spend the rest of the time enjoying the amenities of the resort, something we have never done (usually, we are busy-bodies that love to see as much as we can.)

That night, we got alerts on our phones of a dust storm. I kept imaging the techno song “Sandstorm” and was cracking myself up. In the middle of the night, my pregnant nose could smell something different. “Someone pooped!” I told Aaron, who was fast asleep. “No they didn’t, it’s okay, go back to sleep.” Well, interestingly enough, when we got to the pool the next day, we heard staff members talking and found out that the dust storm has high counts of sulfur in it, which gets in the air vents and is a bit smelly! (Thankfully, it is very temporary.) So there, I was right! A pro about the dust storm was that it made the sky a little overcast, which took the heat down a little, and made for an amazing pool day. We had frozen lemonades and shared some french fries and chips with guac (we don’t believe in diets on vacations.)

I kind of joked with Aaron that I felt like an alien at the resort, as I had not seen a single pregnant person our entire time. Well, when we were about to get in the pool, a woman about my mom’s age said she loved my tummy, and asked if she could touch it. I’m going to be honest, my logic on the whole “to touch or not to touch the tummy” is that this is the only time in my life it is “cute” to have a big, round belly…so why not!? “Sure, go for it!” I didn’t know it’d open a floodgate of a few more women talking about their past pregnancies, and another asking to touch my stomach—which the baby kicked for her, which led to even more stomach touching. Aaron and I got some good laughs out of it. We made it for the real candy happy hour in the lobby, stashed up on some treats, and went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner.

Candy happy hour—a pregnant lady’s delight!

Our resort had a steakhouse called The Edge, but unfortunately we didn’t think to go to it before it was too late for a reservation. We tried to see if we liked the bar, but weren’t into the seating, to which they checked to see if there were any cancellations, to which there was, and we got an amazing spot! I am still daydreaming about our meal: we both got delicious steaks, and shared some mini-baked potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta. I could’ve just eaten the brussels sprouts and been the happiest ever! It was a beautiful, peaceful, and delicious meal, and I didn’t take for granted getting to sit next to Aaron and just take our time talking and eating delicious food together (versus potty breaks and needing to cut everything into bite sized pieces for little people.) 🙂

We took a night walk around the resort, and then stopped by The State Fare to grab some ice cream to share. We ate it outside, which by 10pm the weather was amazing, with scenic bonfires all around. We talked a while, walked a little more, then headed off to bed. The last night of a vacation is always bittersweet, but we were still equally looking forward to getting to sleep in one more time.

We had eggs benedict one last time, then headed out for our drive to the Long Beach airport. There was a little traffic, but other than that, we were able to return our rental car and get into the airport easily. Our flight was short and sweet, and we made it back home by about 5pm. The girls were so happy to see us—there’s nothing like the excitement they have when they miss you and run up to you with hugs, kisses and humongous smiles. We are so thankful to our parents, my little sister, and our friends Kevin and Brittany for all helping to take care of our little ladies so we could get some R&R. There’s nothing like knowing your most precious little people are being loved and cared for so that we could just soak up getting to spend some quality time together.

Definitely missing our beautiful room with a view

I am so thankful to get to have some time making sweet memories with Aaron before we bring another little girl into our family. He is such a good husband to make such a surprise like that happen for me (even if I was such a stinker to begin with and knocked it before I tried it.) It was an incredible little vacation. Reality of parenting sank in quite quickly, and all it takes is for us to occasionally say (in the midst of a toddler asking us for something, or one of them bonking their heads and crying,) “Hey…remember Rancho Mirage?” to which one of us goes, “Ahhhh, Rancho Mirage” and we smile. Happy memories to hold onto for a lifetime, oh how I loved my very first babymoon!

This is just so, so sweet. Despite those sky high temperatures, so glad you were able to enjoy yourself. The spa day sounds amaziiiing, need to treat myself to one soon. And love all your pictures along the post – the pizza and eggs look so good! 🙂